Kate backwards & forwards

This isn't about sharing the story of Romeo and Juliet line by line.

Most of us know William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, but not everyone has read the play due to the language in which it is written.

That is why the full length play is not on this website. This visual story aims to break the language barrier by creating emotion and having the viewer experience the story through each act.

Prologue

The story of Romeo and Juliet begins with a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families, which causes chaos in the city of Verona.

Relationships are constantly changing much like the opening sequence as you first enter the story.

Revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young lovers to grow up quickly—and fate causes them to commit suicide in despair.

Moving past the opening sequence, the prologue gives background to what will be experienced and alludes to the tragedy this play holds.

As you scroll through the story, the right side of the page shows exactly which act you are on and you can skip acts or go to the beginning whenever you choose. On the left side you’ll see characters being crossed out and turn to red, which indicates all the deaths that happen and in which acts these deaths take place.

I chose to pair a gothic typeface with a simple sans-serif to give note to the time in which this play took place but also to represent how relevant this play is still to this day.

Act 2

Act 5

Text overlaps one another and is set in a non-tradional way in order to create tension, which represents what is happening within the play.

Act 2, is when Romeo and Juliet’s relationship starts to build and they begin to fight for their love. This is shown through a change in background color, which also eludes to tragedy soon to come.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” spins forever in circle to resemble one of the themes throughout the play.

Some of the last lines spoken by Romeo and Juliet show that they died for similar yet different reasons. This is shown through the two separate lines sitting directly next to each other and typeset in a very similar way. Both lines can be viewed differently, or as you hover over each line they can be viewed the same.

It doesn’t matter how long we play for. Just as long as we play more.

Question: How can sharing stories connect and inspire people to create happiness within their lives?

This thesis project started with wanting to create more happiness for people in the form of a book. However, further into the project I chose to create a website because it would reach more people and is more accessible. *This website is an on-going project and continues to grow.

The goal of the project never changed, I wanted us all to share our hard times that we have had to overcome or to acknowledge the difficult times we are facing now. By sharing these stories with one another, could this be a way to feel more connected while also creating encouragment for those who need it? No one is alone when going through hard times.

I might not be able to create instant happiness in people’s lives, but when people share stories with one another they feel more connected and less alone which is one step closer to happiness.

*When furthing this project, I would like to include a space of knowledge and research for people to reference.

PURPOSE
I will create a book that tells the stories of people and how they find happiness on a daily level or times when they have been faced with struggles. The book will also discuss research that has been compiled on the topic of happiness and everyday emotions.

OBJECTIVE
Today, millennials are amongst the highest age group dealing with depression. Studies show that a lot of this is due to stress with school and work. Millennials feel like they don’t have enough time for hobbies they enjoy.

While interviewing people for my book, I will reconnect those being interviewed to happy moments in their life. I will do this while also telling their story so others can feel connected to those around them and understand that everyone goes through difficult times and how those people have overcome those times to find happiness.

OPPORTUNITY
Research has shown that people who feel present in their daily lives are likely to be happier than those who do not feel present.

When people are feeling stressed or overwhelmed with their lives, it can be hard to remain present. Through sharing the stories of others, I hope those reading choose to remember certain times in their life where they can relate to the stories being shared, and read how others found happiness in those instances.

I hope this project helps people within their daily lives become more present and connected with others even if they are trying to overcome difficult times. Knowing that others have been through similar situations will encourage them to overcome whatever it is they may be going through.

PURPOSE
To connect people with one another through stories.

To create encouragement for those trying to overcome difficult times.

To engage people with their emotions so they can understand what they can do to change them.

DESIRED REACTION
Readers will feel a connection with the people being interviewed. They will read the stories of others and remember similar moments in their lives. Through reading the stories, readers will reflect on their emotions and feel a connection with those whom are sharing.

PROJECT TONE
This project will have a positive tone, even if not all the stories leave on a positive note, because it will be inspiring to those who have had similar circumstances or life events. I don’t want this to feel like a cheesy “Here’s How To Be Happy,” or “Ways To Increase Your Happiness.”

I want to subtly show how others find happiness when facing difficult times, and show research dealing with the brain and happiness so it is more of a learning and engaging book rather than a “How To.”

PROJECT APPROACH
I will design a book that allows people to connect with one another which hopefully helps readers when they find themselves in difficult times.

I also hope those telling their stories will feel a sense of achievement in remembering the difficult times in their life that they have had to overcome or are currently overcoming.

IT’S OK!

YOU’RE OK!

Waking up early is already hard enough. Waking up before the sun rises is even harder.

This app and product concept eliminates the dreaded feeling of waking up in the morning because as long as our window tells us it's light outside, we'll believe it.

Aurora is a filtered window that can be controlled through a simple app.

Aurora’s home screen allows the user to speak into the app by holding down the speaker.

“Aurora, turn on my morning wake up.”

Aurora will prompt the user to the alarm screen and show that the alarm has been set.

If there is no set alarm yet, the user can add an alarm and select which window experience he/she would like to have. The user can also choose between 5 wake up sounds to accompany the wake up experience.

Never wake up to darkness again.

Waking up will be the same at 5:00 AM as it is at 10:00 AM.

With many features, Aurora has the ability to change the windows of any room which changes the experience.

Day/Night feature allows the user to brighten or dim the windows.

Sync feature let’s the user connect to different music and movie watching apps such as Netflix, Spotify, and Pandora.
Moods feature has a variety of curated gradients in order to capture the mood the user would like to create.

GET MOODY

When first starting this project focused around a single color, I wanted to create a cookbook because I love all the different colors that are in vegetables, fruit, spices, and everything that goes into cooking.

That’s when I chose to focus on a color that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves.

I wanted to take an assortment of brown ingredients and show how beautiful they can be.

Brown is beautiful.

A first thought when creating a cookbook was how to cook and photograph all the food in a beautiful way.

Realizing as the project progressed, the brown ingredients would speak for themselves. Since this book is about the color brown, why not show the ingredients in their whole form?

The brown ingredients are different textures and shades of browns—this should be shown. By closely photographing them, it gives texture to the page, while also showing the details of these ingredients.

Didot is not a typeface meant to be read in large body of text; however, the typeface worked for this book because of it’s delicate thicks and thins. Since the photographs are so heavy in contrast on the page, I wanted a typeface that would compliment them and not distract.

This book isn’t only meant to be used as a cookbook. It is meant to teach people about the ingredients and where they come from. They don’t magically appear in the grocery store or the fridge. Each ingredient has a different journey. Three ingredients are focused on in depth and discuss the process in which they grow and are harvested.

For furthering this project, I would want to make a whole series of cookbooks incorporating different colors of food. I think it’s important to understand how the ingredients we use everyday are cared for so we can be more appreciative of the food we make, no matter what color the ingredients are.